• KNEA Legislative Agenda
• Legislative Issues
• School Funding Central
• State Board News
• Take Action Now (LAC)
• Under the Dome Today

July 2, 2009

Governor makes cuts to state programs

Reacting to news that state tax collections have come in below expectations, Governor Mark Parkinson has issued a series of “allotments” – or cuts – to state services in order to bring the state budget into balance.

Kansas, like most states, requires a balanced budget and, when the legislature is not in session, the Governor is given the authority to restore balance through cuts. The Governor does not have the authority to order revenue enhancements.

When the legislature adopted a budget with a $17,000 ending balance, we knew that this day might come. We continue to believe that the legislature acted appropriately in enacting only enough cuts to balance the budget based on what was known at the time. The idea was to balance the budget and then watch for signs of an economic recovery that might get the state through the year.

But after two more months of bad economic news, the budget has again gone out of balance, forcing Governor Parkinson to make allotments.

When asked if more cuts might come later, the Governor responded, “We will make cuts when we have to and we will not make cuts until we have to.”

For the text of the Governor’s press release and a link to the details of all the allotments, click here.

It seems inappropriate to cut more than is necessary. We know that budgets, once cut, rarely get restored. We anticipate that, even as the economy recovers, some legislators may not be willing to restore education funding to the levels we have enjoyed in the past few years. And this is despite the fact that a legislatively-ordered study of the new education funding conducted by the Legislative Post Audit Division found a nearly one to one correspondence between increased spending and student achievement gains.

In the allotments announced at the news conference this morning, the Governor spared Kansas school children as much as he could. While schools will be getting a two per cent cut, that cut will not be applied across all portions of the K-12 budget. The cut will be applied to general state aid only. This means that there will be a cut of approximately $62 to base state aid per pupil but no cut to special education, LOB state aid, etc.

Click here for a district by district analysis of the impact of this cut.

Schools, already reeling from the loss of nearly 4,000 employees, will have a difficult time adjusting budgets to meet this additional reduction. There will likely be further reductions to student programs. Legislators need to know that student achievement will be harmed. While there is not likely to be an immediate downturn in student achievement levels, the longer it takes to restore education funding, the greater the impact will be.

In discussing the additional cuts to education, the Governor said, “There is really no way to spin this that it won’t create serious challenges for them (schools).” But he trusts that school boards, administrators, and teachers will find appropriate ways to address the cuts.

There is a solution to this problem but unfortunately too many legislators don’t care to talk about it.

For the past several years, policy makers have been on a tax cut spree. According to a memo from legislative staff, just calculating the tax cuts passed since 2005, the impact on the 2010 fiscal year is a loss of over $180 million to the state treasury. By FY 2013, that impact will be $1.135 billion. This is providing they pass no more tax cuts between now and 2013!

It is long past time for legislators to stop this tax cut madness and rethink the whole Kansas revenue system. It is possible to craft a system that is fair to both individuals and businesses, provides for economic development, funds quality state services, and is less susceptible to swings in the economy.

Once again, we call on the legislature to establish a tax modernization commission made up of economists, business leaders, representatives of non-profits and state agencies, and legislators to study the system and bring forward recommendations for change. Only then will the legislature deal effectively with the structural deficit in our system. Only then can Kansans begin to count on quality state and local government services.

Click here to read more about this issue!

KNEA Under the Dome Archives
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005